BETA Safety Conference 2026 — the future of equestrian safety

In equestrianism, safety is discussed more and more — and rightly so. But it's one thing to talk, and another to listen to those who daily design, test, and measure the effectiveness of equipment intended to protect our lives. On April 21, 2026, the BETA Safety Conference was held in Loughborough — a one-day meeting of industry leaders, scientists, doctors, and manufacturers, entirely dedicated to rider safety. We followed it online — and the conclusions from this discussion go far beyond mere notes.

This text is not a classic conference report. It is a synthesis of what most strongly resonates with the mission that Equishop has been pursuing for years: to be a consistent, reliable voice of reason regarding safety in the Polish equestrian community. From ten presentations and dozens of hours of discussion, we have selected three conclusions that, in our opinion, should change the way Polish riders think about their protective equipment.

Above is a screenshot from the BETA Safety Conference 2026 presentation, Loughborough, April 21, 2026. Material used for educational purposes.

Loughborough, April 21, 2026 — BETA conference entirely on rider safety

The conference was opened by Claire Williams, executive director of the British Equestrian Trade Association and convener of Working Group 5 in the European technical committee TC158 — a person who genuinely co-creates the safety standards for riding helmets applicable throughout the European Union. Her first sentence from the podium was telling: "Twenty-five years ago, it was difficult to even get riders to think about safety. Since the pandemic, we have seen a real shift in attitudes."

Among the speakers were Dr. Stephanie Bonin from MEA Forensic (chair of the scientific panel of the FEI Equestrian Safety Vest Working Group), Dr. Mark Hart — chair of the FEI Medical Committee and physician for the American Olympic team, Robin Spicer — innovation lead at LeMieux and co-creator of the RLS patent, Daloni Lucas, physiotherapist and PhD candidate at the University of Bath, whose research on spinal injuries in jockeys is already changing guidelines for British racing, and Lorna Cameron from Hartpury University, conducting research on protective vests for women.

The conference focused on substantive content — biomechanics of injuries, equipment certification, testing standards, and what we still don't know about rider safety.

First conclusion — safety is not a competition category, it is a daily decision

The starting point for the first conclusion is the presentation by Lorna Cameron, a senior lecturer from Hartpury University. Lorna presented the results of a survey conducted jointly with Prof. Jane Williams and Dr. David Marlin, in which over 3,700 riders participated. 95.5% of respondents fell off a horse in the last twelve months. 17.9% — more than three times.

Screenshot from BETA Safety Conference 2026 presentation, Loughborough, April 21, 2026. Material used for educational purposes.

These are shocking numbers in themselves. But it's the context of these falls that changes the perspective. The most common situations in which riders ended up on the ground were quiet riding in the field, relaxed flatwork in the stable, and jumping training outside of competitions — activities during which most riders do not wear a protective vest. And the most frequently injured areas are the back and shoulders — precisely those that a vest protects.

Lorna's own study, conducted on a sample of over a thousand riders (97.8% women), showed something else: 47.4% of women use a vest only in situations they consider "high risk" — with the definition of "high risk" being different for each person. The same pattern was confirmed during the discussion by Claire Williams herself: "Our own research shows that 99% of riders wear a helmet. Only 55% wear a vest. My two most serious falls in life happened on the flat."

This is the paradox of safety that Equishop has observed for years in the Polish reality as well. We choose protective equipment for the most spectacular situations — show jumping, competitions, cross-country — while most serious injuries occur where our vigilance is lowest. In the stable, during a quiet ride out, in the arena during seemingly ordinary flatwork.

Lorna also pointed out another, much subtler dimension of this problem. Her pilot study on an equestrian simulator showed that a protective vest can change the rider's position in the saddle — 61.5% of women participating in the survey reported feeling differently seated when wearing a vest. The torso tilted slightly backward, less freedom in segmental spine movement. "The less often we use a vest in daily training, the more uncomfortable and awkward it seems when we only wear it for competitions," Lorna concluded. This has a very practical consequence: a vest must be worn regularly for the body to learn to work in it.

Second conclusion — certification is not a specification detail, it is a threshold on which life depends

Dr. Stephanie Bonin's session was the most technically challenging part of the conference — and at the same time the most important, when it comes to understanding why equipment certification is not a formality. Stephanie, a biomechanist with fifteen years of experience in head injury research, explained the difference between two fundamental mechanisms of brain damage during a fall.

Linear impact — when the head abruptly stops in translational motion — primarily generates localized injuries: hematomas, skull fractures, contusions. Rotational impact — when the head rotates around its own axis — causes brain tissue to "lag" behind the skull, generating strain (stretching) at the cellular level. This is the mechanism of concussion, diffuse axonal injury, and subdural hemorrhages from torn bridging veins.

And here's a number worth remembering: a fall from a height of 61 centimeters without a helmet generates a peak acceleration of approximately 800G on the head — significantly above the skull fracture threshold. The same fall with a certified helmet, with a properly functioning EPS layer (absorbent polystyrene), reduces this to an impulse lasting about 10 milliseconds, with a much flattened curve. The entire purpose of a helmet lies in this difference — and this difference exists only when the helmet meets one of the international certification standards: European EN 1384 (in its 2023 version), British PAS 015:2011, German VG1 01.040 2014-12, or American ASTM F1163:2015.

Screenshot from BETA Safety Conference 2026 presentation, Loughborough, April 21, 2026. Material used for educational purposes.

Stephanie also mentioned her own research, which we consider particularly interesting for Polish riders. She examined how hair affects the performance of MIPS-type anti-rotational systems. The conclusion was surprising: hair itself offers a certain "slip" layer between the skull and the helmet, acting as a primitive anti-rotational system. A bald person using MIPS receives comparable protection to a person with hair without MIPS. But a person with hair plus MIPS receives an additional benefit in reducing rotational acceleration. This is one of those details that will not be found in any product sheet.

The most powerful moment of the day, however, was the presentation by Daloni Lucas from the University of Bath. Daloni is a physiotherapist with sixteen years of experience in caring for professional jockeys and the first person in the world to systematically study the etiology of spinal injuries in racing. She analyzed 655 falls from 2015–2022 using a case-control methodology, with machine learning (random forest) to identify predictors.

The statistics she started with are striking. A flat jockey experiences a fall on average once every 250 rides; a jump jockey — once every 20 rides, 20% of which result in injury. 64.5% of spinal fractures among the jockeys studied concerned the thoracic segment (most often T6–T7) — mainly due to axial compression caused by the hyperflexed head position tucked under the pelvis at the moment of impact with the ground.

But Daloni's most important discovery concerns protective vests. In Ireland, jockeys wearing Level 2 vests had a 67% lower risk of spinal injury than jockeys in Level 1 vests. In the UK — no difference. Why this discrepancy? "In Ireland, they routinely inspect vests before each race, checking if they are properly fitted and if they have not been modified by the rider," Daloni explained. Identical vest, identical certificate, identical EN 13158 standard — and a 67% difference in results. The entire protective effect lies in the fit and compliance.

Screenshot from BETA Safety Conference 2026 presentation, Loughborough, April 21, 2026. Material used for educational purposes.

The second point of her research is even more shocking. In a survey among professional jockeys, 64.64% had never been professionally fitted for their protective vest. Half experienced discomfort, 46% believed the vest would restrict their movement in a fall, and during observations at Kempton Park, Daloni found only two unmodified vests in the paddock out of all the starters that evening. The rest were altered, trimmed, or had foam removed in critical areas.

Screenshot from BETA Safety Conference 2026 presentation, Loughborough, April 21, 2026. Material used for educational purposes.

These two threads from Lorna and Daloni converge into one: a certificate on the label is only the first step. The second — equally important — is the precise fitting of equipment to a specific person, their anatomy, their discipline, their riding style. This is exactly what we do at Equishop, in our Fitting Center in Ruda Śląska — run by a team of experts who ride horses themselves every day and know the realities of stables from the inside. This is also exactly the same mechanism that explains why we recommend specific brands of Freejump airbag vests — because we know how to properly fit and service them.

The conference also brought a strong warning regarding how we currently interpret product compliance with standards. Dr. Megan Barneswood from Champion Manufacturing, a newly minted doctor after five years of research on sub-concussive impacts in football, demonstrated a fundamental point in Loughborough: safety standards are a minimum, not a maximum. Helmets that pass the standard still allow for brain strain, which in the long term leads to neurodegeneration. In football, a field player is 3.5–5 times more likely to suffer from CTE-type diseases than a goalkeeper — and these are the cumulative effects of impacts that cause no clinical symptoms. In equestrianism, where the duration of impact is up to ten times longer than a header, we are only beginning to understand this topic.

All of this leads to one thesis: choosing premium protective equipment, certified to the latest version of the standard and precisely fitted — is not a matter of status, snobbery, or whim. It is a decision that, in a real fall scenario, changes the outcome from a serious injury to a minor bruise. Or from a tragedy — to a return to the saddle within a few months.

Third conclusion — raising awareness is a long-term responsibility, not a one-time campaign

The last of the three main conclusions we bring from Loughborough no longer concerns technology or biomechanics. It concerns people and culture.

Dr. Mark Hart, Chairman of the FEI Medical Committee, connected online from Kentucky (where he was attending the Kentucky Three-Day Event 5* as the physician for the American team) and presented statistics that best illustrate how long a process changing attitudes can be. Mark recalled that the first modern riding helmet was developed in 1882 — one hundred and thirty-four years ago. The first mandatory helmets in racing: the 1950s. For eventing: the 1990s. For all FEI disciplines except dressage and vaulting — only 2013. For dressage — 2021.

Helmet manufacturers helped in this change in an immeasurable way. "They added bling to dressage helmets, young riders liked them — and the matter was closed," Mark said with a slightly bitter smile. This entire history shows that cultural change requires a combination of three things: regulation, education, and — above all — equipment that people truly want to wear.

Mark also presented two examples of real accidents. An American mid-level rider during an FEI competition in France — despite an approved helmet and vest — suffered a brain hemorrhage, severe concussion, and cervical spine injury. The second rider, during a cross-country event in Canada on a non-frangible fence — esophageal rupture, seven broken ribs, flail chest, internal bleeding, pelvic fracture. Both riders returned to riding. But neither of these stories should have happened if the safety culture in equestrianism was where it ought to be.

During the presentation by Robin Spicer, innovation lead at LeMieux and co-creator of the RLS (Release Layer System) patent, another important social argument was made. Robin quoted James Kratner — a cyclist who, after an accident in his thirties, fell into a coma, and after waking up, struggled for a long time with a relationship that ultimately broke down due to personality changes after brain injury. "90% of severe brain injuries end in divorce," Robin quoted. "Wear a helmet not to protect yourself. Wear a helmet so that the people you love don't have to take care of you later because you didn't want to."

This statement is exactly what Equishop has been trying to communicate for years — albeit differently, more cautiously, without sentimentality. Safety in equestrianism is not an individual matter. It is a matter for the entire ecosystem around the rider — family, partners, children, horses, trainers.

The third theme in the same context concerns rider diversity — and shows that even the biggest industry brands must at some point revise their approach to equipment fitting. David Derby, CEO of Charles Owen, spoke at the conference about a call he received in his first week on the job, in October 2021. A "New York Times" journalist called asking: "Why is Charles Owen ignoring its responsibility to promote diversity in equestrianism?" David's initial reaction: "no comment." It took him three years to understand how this question connects with safety. Because it connects fundamentally: a helmet that cannot be properly fitted to a person with Afro-Caribbean hair, hair in locs, dreadlocks, or protective hairstyles — is not a safe helmet. It is a discriminatory helmet.

The result of this reflection is a Charles Owen training module — brand-agnostic, available to all retailers — which Jade Faulkner, head of product development at Charles Owen, showed at the conference. The main message: a rider should never change their hair to fit a helmet. The helmet must be fitted to the person, not the other way around.

This story does not only concern the Afro-Caribbean community. It concerns every group of customers Equishop serves — including approximately 85% of our female customers who for decades bought protective vests designed for male anatomy (50th percentile male in laboratory tests). The world's first study of breast movement under a vest in equestrianism, presented in Loughborough by Lorna Cameron's team, showed that a standardly chosen vest for a woman with a larger bust can generate exercise pain despite reduced tissue displacement. The mechanism is not yet fully understood — but the problem is real.

To quote Daloni Lucas at the end of her presentation: "Jockeys communicate with us through their actions. We need to start listening." The same applies to the entire equestrian industry — shops, manufacturers, federations. Every modified vest, every helmet worn too rarely, every customer who has never been professionally fitted — this is a message we should receive.

What do we take from Loughborough to Ruda Śląska?

The conference in Loughborough was a confirmation for us of the direction Equishop has consistently taken for years. It does not change our position — it strengthens it. The three thoughts we bring back to the Polish market are clear.

Firstly: protective equipment worn occasionally does not protect occasionally — it protects poorly. The statistics from Lorna Cameron and Williams & Marlin are unambiguous: most serious falls occur in situations we do not consider dangerous. A riding helmet and vest should be part of a daily riding routine, not just a professional wardrobe item.

Secondly: product compliance with EN 1384 or EN 13158 is just a starting point. The real protective effect only begins when the equipment is precisely fitted to a specific person. A 67% difference in spinal injury risk reduction between Ireland and the UK — with identical vests — is the strongest argument for never buying protective equipment online without prior consultation with a store that offers professional fitting. If you can, see the equipment live, have a professional try it on for you, and ask questions.

Thirdly: safety awareness in equestrianism is not a seasonal project. It is a long-term, daily educational effort that cannot be replaced by a single campaign or a single article. The conference in Loughborough confirmed our belief that this work is just beginning — also in Poland.

If you want to talk about choosing protective equipment, check if your current vest or helmet is properly fitted, or simply see various types of premium riding helmets and safety stirrups live, we invite you to our stationary store at Oświęcimska 9 in Ruda Śląska. Consultation at the Fitting Center is free of charge — and the difference between properly fitted equipment and equipment bought "by eye" can be the difference between a fall you laugh about in the stable an hour later and six weeks in the hospital.

What we learned in Loughborough boils down to one sentence that is worth repeating before every ride. You have one life and one head. There is no price for that.